Tagged: Chris Capuano

The Yankees routed the Texas Rangers 21-5 at Globe Life Park on Tuesday for their fourth win in a row and eighth win in their last nine games. Yankees starter Chris Capuano allowed five run in the first inning and then the Yankees went onto score 21 unanswered runs. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Yankees are the first team to score 21 unanswered runs after allowing five or more runs.

The Yankees scored 11 runs in the second inning and then four runs in the third to essentially put the game away. Even more rare is that Capuano allowed three hits, five walks and five runs while getting two outs (it took 29 minutes) in the first and then the Yankees didn’t allow a hit the rest of the game.

“I don’t know if I have been a part of that where you give up five runs in the first and then don’t give up another hit the rest of the game,” Joe Girardi said.

The Yankees were led by Chris Young who was 3-6 and drove in a career-high five runs, which included a grand slam in the third inning to left field that drove in Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Brett Gardner. Young also hit a double to left in the sixth to score Gardner to make the score 17-5.

“It was fun,” Young said. “To be able to come back in the second inning after being behind. You feel like whoever is at the plate will get the job done. If you have runners on base all the time and get hits you are going to get rewarded for it.”

The Yankees had 19 hits, 10 walks and six different Yankees had multiple RBIs. In the second inning, Chase Headley hit two RBI singles, Brendan Ryan hit one double that could have been a double play that turned into two RBIs and another RBI double, Didi Gregorius hit a triple that scored Rodriguez, Young and Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury, Gardner and Rodriguez all hit RBI singles.

Young’s 12th homer of the season made it 15-5 in the third and then in the fourth inning Young grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Gardner. Young is one of six Yankees with double digit homers. After Young’s RBI double in the sixth, John Ryan Murphy hit a single to score Young and Garrett Jones to become the eighth Yankee to drive in a run.

For the Yankees final runs of the game, Gardner hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning off of infielder Adam Rosales, who was pitching for the second time this season.

“They are feeling confident and they feel good at the plate,” Girardi said. “We had a lot of good at-bats.”

Equally as important as the offense was the Diego Moreno, who was called-up earlier in the day from Triple-A Scranton, came on in relief of Capuano to pitch 5.1 innings while striking out five, not allowing a hit and only throwing 70 pitches. He was able to save Girardi from having to use many relievers and proved to be more valuable than Capuano for the major league roster.

“His changeup was outstanding and his slider was outstanding,” Girardi said. “He went 5.1 innings and only threw 70 pitches. That is impressive.”

Adam Warren did not allow a hit in his three innings after Moreno came out of the game. According to Elias, it was the first time that the Yankees bullpen had ever thrown seven or more hitless innings in a game.

“I was super happy about the opportunity given to me today,” Moreno said through a translator. “I was happy to contribute to the win. I was relaxing and just trying to concentrate and throw strikes. As soon as the phone rang I knew I was getting called in. I am extremely happy (about the win) and my family is also.”

Gregorius has really gotten better at the plate during the last week. On July 22 he had a .234 average and he now has a .257 average. After his 4-5 game on Tuesday he is hitting .600 in his last five games with 10 RBIs and he has a and a solid .297 average (52-175) in 51 games since May 29.

He has really improved offensively and defensively since the beginning of the season and appears to be a very capable starting shortstop. He has also added a hitter at the bottom of the lineup who has been getting on base and driving in runs, which makes the batting order that much deeper.

The 16-5 record in July that the Yankees have is the best record this month in the majors. As the trade deadline approaches, the Yankees have a 7 game lead over the Orioles and a 7.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. Masahiro Tanaka will get the start for the Yankees in Game 3 of the series Wednesday night at 8:05 p.m. EST.

The Yankees lost the the Marlins on Tuesday, 12-2, and Nathan Eovaldi had by far the worst start of his season on Tuesday night against the Miami Marlins. He might have put too much pressure on himself ahead of pitching against his former team as he was not even able to pitch one inning. He allowed the Marlins to score eight runs on nine hits in 0.2 innings, which raised his ERA from 4.13 to 5.12.

The first inning might have been different if the Marlins No. 3 hitter, Christian Yelich, didn’t get to first as a result of Didi Gregorius bobbling the grounder that he hit, but Eovaldi didn’t locate his pitches after Yelich’s single, which should have been an error on Gregorius. Eovaldi threw far too many of his secondary pitches in the middle of the plate, which led to nine of the 11 batters that he faced getting a hit.

The eight runs that the Marlins scored in the first inning were a franchise-high.

Brian McCann single to right in the sixth that scored Gregorius was his 40th RBI of the season. McCann has the second most RBIs in the American League among catchers. In the seventh inning, pinch-hitter Mason Williams doubled to left to score Stephen Drew. That was his second hit in his 12 at-bats since being called up from Triple-A.

The Yankees will look to bounce back tonight at Yankee Stadium against the Marlins after losing to them on Monday and Tuesday in Miami. The Marlins are now 29-37 and seven games behind the Mets in the NL East. The Yankees are 34-30 and a game behind the Tampa Bay Rays for first in the AL East.

Michael Pineda, who allowed five earned runs in 4.1 innings in his previous outing, will get the start for the Yankees. He has struggled this season and last season when pitching on extra rest, and is on normal rest tonight, so that could mean that he will be able to command his changeup and slider like he has for most of the season.

Pineda, who is 7-3 with a 3.74 ERA, has allowed two runs or fewer in seven of his 12 starts this season. He will have the benefit of pitching against the weaker Marlins lineup tonight.

Before tonight’s game, the Yankees called up Jose DePaula from Triple-A Scranton to give them a fresh long man since Chris Capuano threw four innings last night.

Mark Teixeira, who has three multi-hit games in his last six games, will get the night off after playing in the previous 10 games (this included two off days). Garrett Jones will get the start at first base against his former team. Here is the lineup for tonight’s game against Miami:

Andrew Miller during the game against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 8.

The seven-game winning streak that the Yankees were on is over as they had a 4-2 lead entering the top of the eighth inning but ended up losing to the Washington Nationals 5-4 in 11 innings. Denard Span hit an RBI infield single in the 11th off of Chris Capuano to score Tyler Moore in what was the winning run.

“Dellin Betances was down today and Andrew Miller is going to end up on the DL with a strain in his flexor muscle (forearm),” Joe Girardi said. “He will not throw the ball for 10 days to two weeks and then we will go from there.” Girardi didn’t use Betances because he had been used a lot recently.

The bullpen ruined a solid start by Nathan Eovaldi as he threw seven innings while allowing three runs on eight hits. He had four strikeouts and was able to give the team much more length than he did in his previous two starts. Span drove in the first run of the game in the third inning as his double down the left field line scored Danny Espinosa.

If Betances did not need a day off he likely would have been pitching in the eighth inning when the Nationals tied the game. With rookie Jacob Lindgren pitching, pinch-hitter Michael Taylor hit a two-run homer to right to drive in Ian Desmond to make the score 4-4. However, if Stephen Drew didn’t have trouble getting the ball out of his glove and converted the double play in the eighth then Taylor would not have come to the plate in the eighth.

The Yankees scored four runs in the seventh inning, but they ended up needing one more run to get the win. Brandan Ryan, who was appearing in his first game of the season, hit better than expected as his triple to center scored Chris Young (and was his second hit of the day). Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez both hit run scoring doubles and then Brian McCann had an RBI single after his grounder up the middle hit second base and prevented Desmond from catching it.

Rodriguez now needs only eight more hits to be the 29th baseball player with 3,000 hits. The seventh inning was the only positive from the offensive standpoint as the Yankees left eight runners on base and were 0-6 with runners in scoring position outside of the seventh inning.

Miller told Girardi after the game on Tuesday that he had pain in his flexor muscle. During his nine pitches thrown during Tuesday’s game his body language was different than normal, which was an indication of his injury. Girardi said that everyone will be pushed back an inning and that Betances will be the closer while Miller is on the DL.

“It was hard to get loose sometimes and it became too much of a distraction,” Miller said. His control has not been as efficient as it was earlier in the season since he has thrown much more pitches recently. This hurts the Yankees since they will not have a shutdown reliable eighth inning pitcher like they have had with Betances.

The loss of Miller for what will probably be more than three weeks will hurt since he was having an All-Star season to this point. He has pitched 26.1 innings (26 games) and has a 1.03 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, 17 saves in 17 chances, 43 strikeouts and only 10 walks.

Girardi will now likely use a mixture of Chasen Shreve and Justin Wilson in the eighth inning with Miller out. It will be important for Betances to continue pitching in the ninth the same way he did in the eighth, but he is more of a sure thing than the eighth inning options are.

Pinch-hitter Garrett Jones struck out swinging to end the game. Before today’s game, Jones had raised his average from .186 to .262 from May 23 to June 5.

The Yankees, who are 33-26 and have a two-game lead in the AL East, have another off day on Thursday and will start a series against the fourth place Baltimore Orioles on Friday.

The Yankees will play the Mariners in Seattle tonight at 10:10 EST. Felix Hernandez, who is 8-1 and has an outstanding 1.91 ERA this season, will get the start for the Mariners. He has remarkably allowed two runs or less in eight of the 10 starts that he has made this season. In six starts against the Yankees from 2012 until 2014, Hernandez had a 2.09 ERA in 43 innings.

Michael Pineda will get the start for the Yankees and will make this matchup a marquee one. He will be facing the Mariners for the first time since they traded him for Jesus Montero after the 2011 season. Pineda has a very good 3.36 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, a 6-2 record and 67 strikeouts (6th in AL). His ERA would be much better if not for his starts on May 15 and May 22 where he allowed five and four runs respectively.

Part of what makes him the ace of the staff is that he has 67 strikeouts and only five walks. Pineda struggled in those two starts because he was not locating his slider, but when Pineda’s slider is on target he is one of the best starters in the American League.

He only allowed one run in 6.2 innings in his last start, and the Yankees need him to have a similar performance tonight because it is always a challenge to score runs off of King Felix. Pineda will have to contain Nelson Cruz, who leads the American League with his 18 homers. Cruz has been one of the best offseason signings in all of baseball.

It was announced earlier today that when Masahiro Tanaka comes off of the disabled list on Wednesday that Adam Warren will deservedly stay in the rotation and Chris Capuano will be moved to the bullpen.

Stephen Drew will return to the lineup tonight as Jose Pirela got the start at second the previous two games. Joe Girardi is making a point not to give up on Drew.

Slade Heathcott, who has a .353 average with a homer and three RBIs in his 17 at-bats since coming up from Triple-A after Jacoby Ellsbury was put on the disabled list, was put on the 15-day DL on Friday with a Grade II quad strain. The Yankees have called up Ramon Flores to replace him on the roster. Heathcott made four starts and proved to be much better in the outfield than Carlos Beltran.

Heatcott told reporters on Thursday that his quad had been hurting him off an on since the offseason. The former top prospect has had many injuries throughout his minor-league career and this is another one that he will have to overcome. Joe Girardi said that since Ellsbury is on the DL in addition to Heathcott, he will use Brett Gardner more often now going forward. Heathcott had been playing in center field since being called up on May 20.

That Yankees will miss Heathcott’s defense and productive play on offense, but Flores has been playing very well at Triple-A Scranton. Flores, who is 23, has hit .294/.389/.425 with four homers, four doubles and 15 RBIs. He has a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage this season with five outfield assists. The Venezuala native has one or more hits in eight of his last 10 games including four multi-hit games. He was close to being called up even if Heathcott did not get injured.

The Yankees, who lost Thursday night’s series opener to the Athletics in Oakland 5-4, will look to bounce back with Chris Capuano pitching. The pitching matchup is not on the Yankees side as Capuano has a 7.36 ERA in his two starts and Sonny Gray has an American League leading 1.77 ERA in his 10 starts this season. However, the Athletics do have the worst record in the AL.

This is the lineup for tonight’s game against the Athletics at O.co Coliseum:

The Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 on Tuesday to extend their winning streak to two games. They have two consecutive wins against the Royals, who are in first place in the AL Central with a 28-17 record, after previously being swept at home by the Texas Rangers, who had an 18-23 record before their three-game series (they are now 23-23).

Adam Warren only allowed one run on two hits in his 6.1 innings pitched. Joe Girardi took him out after only throwing 88 pitches. He threw an impressive 62 of his 88 pitches for strikes and this time Girardi’s decision to go to the bullpen when the starter was still pitching well worked. Warren had five strikeouts, including the dangerous Eric Hosmer twice, and retired the side in order in the first, second, third and fifth innings.

“Warren is pitching as well as anyone in our rotation right now,” Girard said after the game. His ERA is now down to a respectable 3.91 and he has been one of the best pitchers in the American League over his last three starts. In his last three starts, Warren has pitched 19.2 innings while only allowing six runs and striking out 16 batters. He deserves to stay in the rotation instead of Chris Capuano when Masahiro Tanaka comes off of the disabled list.

Girardi didn’t say that Warren will definitely remain in the rotation when Tanaka is ready to come off of the disabled list, but he did say that there is a possibility of him doing so.

Carlos Beltran extended his hitting streak to 14 games with his single to left in the fourth inning. He is proving that he does have something left offensively after not doing anything the first month of the season. Beltran can’t field like he used to because he can’t run, which makes it necessary to put a back-up outfielder in the game for him in about the seventh inning.

Mark Teixeira was the offensive star of the game for the Yankees as he was 2-4 with two runs scored and four RBIs. He hit a two-run homer in the first inning that scored Alex Rodriguez and then hit a double to right center that scored Rodriguez and Chris Young in the fifth inning. This was Teixeira’s second four RBI game of the season. He is fully healthy this season as he has 14 homers and 35 RBIs already after hitting 22 homers and driving in 62 runs all of last season.

Dellin Betances pitched the eighth inning and struck out all three batters that he faced. Betances got Salvador Perez, Omar Infante and Paulo Orlando all to strike out swinging. Betances is pitching like the All-Star he was last season and has remarkably retired the last 28 batters that he has faced. After perfect inning on Tuesday, he had 38 strikeouts and 25 innings pitched and had not allowed a singled earned run.

Their win over the Royals gave the Yankees a 24-22 record and a half a game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the mediocre American League East.

On Wednesday, Adam Warren was officially named the No. 5 starter by manager Joe Girardi. It was known that there would be a strong possibility that Warren would be the No. 5 starter since last week when Brian Cashman said that he was the favorite in the competition.

Chris Capuano, who had a hamstring injury a few weeks ago, will likely push Warren back to the bullpen once he is healthy. (Ivan Nova will takeover for Capuano when he is healthy.) Warren, who is entering his third full season, has a 2.70 ERA in five spring training starts (16.2 innings). He has allowed 17 hits, has 11 strikeouts and only one walk.

Warren pitched better than any of the other No. 5 starter candidates this spring and also has minor league stats that prove that he can be a quality fill in starter. In 2010, in his first full season while pitching at Single-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton, he had an outstanding 2.59 ERA in 25 starts with 126 strikeouts and 33 walks. In 2012, while pitching at the more challenging Triple-A Scranton, he had a solid 3.71 ERA in 26 starts 107 strikeouts, 46 walks and one shutout. He had a high 1.295 WHIP, but in spring training his WHIP is only 1.08, which proves that he can improve in that category.

Warren made his debut in 2013 and was drafted in the fourth round by the Yankees in 2009 out of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. He has made three starts and 101 appearances out of the bullpen. He should be able to make a smooth transition to starting again based on his stats so far and his history in the minors.